Bug#1060288: locales: Please allow selection of C.UTF-8 when (re)configuring locales

[Axel Scheepers]

Package: locales
Version: 2.36-9+deb12u3
Severity: wishlist
Tags: d-i l10n

Dear Maintainer,

It would be nice to have C.UTF-8 in the list which dpkg-reconfigure locales
shows; When installing a desktop I usually select the C locale since the
others don't really apply and I'm unable to use a different locale setting
for date and lang. This however breaks gnome since it requires a utf-8
locale and I'm unable to select C.UTF-8 at installation.
A workaround is to uncomment the C.UTF-8 locale in /etc/locale.gen
and run dpkg-reconfigure locales after installation.

Kind regards,
Axel Scheepers

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.4
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-17-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages locales depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.82
ii libc-bin 2.36-9+deb12u3
ii libc-l10n 2.36-9+deb12u3

locales recommends no packages.

locales suggests no packages.

-- debconf information:
* locales/locales_to_be_generated: C.UTF-8 UTF-8
* locales/default_environment_locale: C.UTF-8

[Aurelien Jarno]

Hi,

On 2024-01-08 22:06, Axel Scheepers wrote:
> Package: locales
> Version: 2.36-9+deb12u3
> Severity: wishlist
> Tags: d-i l10n
>
> Dear Maintainer,
>
> It would be nice to have C.UTF-8 in the list which dpkg-reconfigure locales
> shows; When installing a desktop I usually select the C locale since the

C.UTF-8 is not shown on purpose, because it doesn't need to be
generated, it is always available on the system. What you want is
probably to be able to select it as a default locale.

The real issue is that the menu to select the default locale is only
shown if there is a locale to generate.

> others don't really apply and I'm unable to use a different locale setting
> for date and lang. This however breaks gnome since it requires a utf-8
> locale and I'm unable to select C.UTF-8 at installation.
> A workaround is to uncomment the C.UTF-8 locale in /etc/locale.gen
> and run dpkg-reconfigure locales after installation.

A better workaround is probably to select a random locale to be
generated, then you should be able to select the C.UTF-8 locale as
default.

Regards
Aurelien

--
Aurelien Jarno GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B
aure...@aurel32.net http://aurel32.net

[Axel Scheepers]

Hello,

On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 7:18 AM Aurelien Jarno <aure...@aurel32.net> wrote:
> C.UTF-8 is not shown on purpose, because it doesn't need to be
> generated, it is always available on the system. What you want is
> probably to be able to select it as a default locale.

Ah yes indeed. I was confused because it's an entry in /etc/locale.gen
and uncommenting it and running dpkg-reconfigure locales showed it was
generating it. This is the first time I had to use C.UTF-8. Can you
elaborate on why it would be problematic to include it in the list?

> A better workaround is probably to select a random locale to be
> generated, then you should be able to select the C.UTF-8 locale as
> default.

Thanks, yes indeed that's better.
Kind regards,
Axel Scheepers

[Aurelien Jarno]

Hi,

On 2024-01-09 17:47, Axel Scheepers wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 7:18 AM Aurelien Jarno <aure...@aurel32.net> wrote:
> > C.UTF-8 is not shown on purpose, because it doesn't need to be
> > generated, it is always available on the system. What you want is
> > probably to be able to select it as a default locale.
>
> Ah yes indeed. I was confused because it's an entry in /etc/locale.gen
> and uncommenting it and running dpkg-reconfigure locales showed it was
> generating it. This is the first time I had to use C.UTF-8. Can you
> elaborate on why it would be problematic to include it in the list?

The problem is that you end-up with two C.UTF-8 locales on the system.
The one generated and the one provided by libc6. Normally that should
work fine, but there is no 100% guarantee that the C.UTF-8 working is
working fine during a major upgrade, between the time libc6 and locales
are unpacked.

> > A better workaround is probably to select a random locale to be
> > generated, then you should be able to select the C.UTF-8 locale as
> > default.
>
> Thanks, yes indeed that's better.

I have just implemented that in git, the current behaviour is a
left-over from before the time C.UTF-8 existed.

[Axel Scheepers]

Hi,

On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 11:54 PM Aurelien Jarno <aure...@aurel32.net> wrote:
> The problem is that you end-up with two C.UTF-8 locales on the system.
> The one generated and the one provided by libc6. Normally that should
> work fine, but there is no 100% guarantee that the C.UTF-8 working is
> working fine during a major upgrade, between the time libc6 and locales
> are unpacked.

Ah ok I understand, thanks for explaining.

> I have just implemented that in git, the current behaviour is a
> left-over from before the time C.UTF-8 existed.

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Axel Scheepers